Day 4 Permet, Albania

 

The day started with torrential rain, continued with torrential rain and ended with torrential rain! Today involved a long drive through the mountains with spectacular scenery but due to the dark skies, low cloud and rain we saw very little of the scenery.

Mid morning we stopped at Erseke, the highest town in Albania at 1050m.

 I did walk a little around the town but most people were huddled in the coffee shops to keep dry.

 Outside the museum was this Russian sculpture but the museum was closed today.

Behind the main square were some old communist blocks. When you have a closer look you can see that a number of them are in need of renovation.

The lunch time stop was a restaurant by a beautiful lake but it was still raining.

It was a very long drive today and it was such a pity that we couldn't see more of the scenery.

Then we had a scheduled stop at the old bridge at Benje Village with its hot springs where we were supposed to have a leisurely dip and swim. The rain had made the walk to the springs too dangerous. Whilst we were there, fire fighters, police and mountain rescue had been called in to help rescue 20 or more people who were trapped because of a landslide and the heavy rain flooding the gorge. It appears that there were other hot springs accessible through the gorge and normally people would walk from one hot spring to another and on to another. Once the police arrived they ordered everyone out of the springs and back to their cars so they could ascertain how many people were missing and continue with their search in a methodical way.

Although some of the group did not heed the advice of our guide and had gone to the springs, the police soon had them out of the water and back with the group. You can just see the first of the springs on the left of this photo. They are a much brighter shade of blue.

By the time we arrived at our hotel for the night we were all a bit fed up. I was the last to be given the key to my room but the hotel owner had kept me waiting as she wanted to give me the room with the best balcony and view as we shared the same first name. She greeted me like a long lost friend.

The view was over the river and out to the mountains. It will be a beautiful view if it ever stops raining.